I have wanted to grow my own sprouts for eating for a long time now, but I was nervous to do it. I didn’t want to do it wrong, or use the wrong seeds. It was enough that I just have not tried it. Then I received this book to review called, “Homegrown Sprouts” by Rita Galchus. This book is a great how to guide to growing sprouts. It covers all different kinds, and all different ways! It made it seem very simple, so I took the plunge and grew my own sprouts. I decided to buy a little sprouter because growing them just in a jar seemed like it was limiting. So I found a sprouter at my local health food store, along with some seeds. They were a mix of seeds- one jar with small grain type seeds and the other with bigger ones.

I have to say I have been pleasantly surprised at how easy and fun it has been. The hardest part is just remembering to rinse them night and morning.

The small seeds/grain mix is great to add to sandwiches and salads. But by far my families favorite is the large seeds mix. It tastes like eating fresh peas from the garden! My little 2 year old did not want her salad for dinner last night, but decided to finish off all of the sprouts instead. So Yummy! It is such a great way to add fresh, raw food into your diet during the winter!

This book is a great way for someone who has never sprouted, but who wants to get started and even someone who wants to expand their knowledge of sprouting. Great information on safe food handling practices and how to properly mix your own mix of seeds to how to remove the hulls after they are sprouted. Then there is a great section on using your sprouts. Even including a raw sprouted hummus recipe! Yum!

I always like to keep a nice library of gardening books. There is always such great information in them, and it is so easy to refer back to and make notes right in the book for what works in your garden or what doesn’t. I recently received a copy of Rocky Mountain Gardener’s Handbook by Mary Ann Newcomer and John Cretti for review. The first thing I noticed about the book when I started to flip through is that it has sections such as annuals, edibles, perennials, tress, ect. Then all of the plants that grow well in the Rocky Mountain area are listed and talked about along with a nice picture of each plant in the sections. I typically Continue reading →

Have you tried square foot gardening, and ran into some problems that you did not know the answer to? Or are you interested in putting in a square foot garden? Although I don’t employ all of the parts of square foot gardening, I have known the basics of it. I have never actually put in a square foot garden. I received “Square Foot Gardening Answer Book” to review, and have actually learned a lot about how it is supposed to be done. There was a fun idea he mentioned Continue reading →

Have you ever dreamed of having a nice big garden with tons of produce you can harvest whenever you need it? It is such a great dream! I have expanded my garden quite a few times, and still seem to need more space to grow all that I would like! I was just given this book called “The Edible Landscape” by Emily Tepe to review. She not only discusses the why of growing a garden, but she presents Continue reading →

Mint is a great herb to grow, and is a great companion plant for cabbage family plants as it disguises the smell of the cabbage and therefore throws the cabbage worm off. Mint likes to grow, and will take over a space if given the chance. Knowing this, I put it in a pot and placed it next to my cabbage plants right in the grow boxes this year. This served 2 purposes, first it would keep it from taking over that spot, and secondly we could move it around as we moved the cabbages from year to year. However, I made 2 mistakes. Continue reading →

One of the things I love most about fall is cooking dinner. It is a great time to use up your harvest from the garden in a very satisfying way. It is also fun to cook outdoors in the fall when the weather is cooler and you can sit back and enjoy life. We received an outdoor fire pit from Avant Garden Decor to review, and one of the things I was excited about was using it for outdoor cooking. Continue reading →

You have probably heard many times over that organic matter is great for your garden. So you add leaves and other organic matter, but it seems to take a long time to break down and be useful to your plants. Well a great way to help that organic matter to break down is to add a little bit of nitrogen fertilizer to help in that process.
Also recently I received a sample of Bio S.I. to try in my garden. It works in conjunction with fertilizer to help the organic matter to break down with an inoculant.